First Guernsey Asian hornet sighting in more than four months

It has been an eerily quiet summer for the Asian Hornet Team, who would normally be following the insects and tracking down and removing nests.

The latest sighting was made on Saturday, near a seating area at the restaurant at Pembroke.

Its identity was later confirmed by the Asian Hornet Team.

This is only the fifth hornet to be spotted in 2020.

While it is possible the insect is a single individual that has flown in from France or from one of the other islands, it is not being ruled out that there is a late nest in the north of the island that has gone undetected throughout the summer.

From past experience, the Asian Hornet Team know that an absence of sightings does not necessarily mean there are no hornets on the island. In 2019 a nest in a garden near Havelet remained undetected for the duration of the summer and was only detected and subsequently removed at the end of October.

Over the next week the Asian Hornet Team will be trying to locate more hornets around the Pembroke area with the intention of tracking them back to an elusive nest.

Asian Hornet Strategy project coordinator Francis Russell said they needed the support of the public to track down the insects.

'Even though things appear to have been relatively quiet on the Asian hornet front this year, we must always assume that there will be hornets nesting on the island somewhere that we don’t yet know about,' he said.

'At this time of the year when the weather is against them, the hornets may well be attracted to late flowering shrubs and garden plants such as the False Castor Oil Plant (Fatsia japonica). It only takes one missed nest in the autumn for the populations to rapidly increase the year after, so please remain vigilant and report any suspicious-looking insects to the Asian Hornet Team.'

Anyone spotting an Asian hornet should take a photograph and observe which direction it flies.

These details can be emailed to asianhornet@gov.gg or the public can call 07839 197082.

For useful identification guides and more information about Asian hornets and the strategy visit https://www.gov.gg/asianhornet.